I can’t believe it’s August already! Why does summer go so quickly?! I always feel like I’m super behind on my reading schedule but I’m actually 100% on track. Here’s what I dug into this month :)

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. I find this method so intriguing but it’s going to take me a while to warm up to the idea of waking up at 5 AM. I’d like to do this program but I have to um, really think about it first.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Oh lord did I really not like this book. The first 1/3 was okay, and then it just descended into philosophical hell.  It didn’t live up to the instant classic hype for me. By the end I was skimming large portions, just waiting to get to  the end.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I loved the super short chapters in this book, and how the two plot lines eventually came together in a fascinating way.

The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business by Steve Mariotti. This is 100% written for teenagers but it was about my speed since I never took any courses on anything marginally business like in college.

Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry. Y’ALL. This is the book I needed in my life. I’m decent with finances: I’m the accountant at our house, I set our budget, I pay my credit card in full each month (sup excellent credit score), and I’m contributing to my retirement savings. HOWEVER. Things I was not doing: contributing the maximum matched amount to my retirement account (Pitt matches up to 8% which is crazy good), my savings was sitting in an .01% APY savings account, and I realized that the payments I’m making on my student loans are going 100% to interest. Allllll of that changed for the better with this book. I often feel like money is scarce and I will run out of it, but this book helped me see how I can take my pretty mediocre salary and make my money work for me. So yes, you should go get this book. Right now.

Somehow it’s almost the end of July, so I figured I might as well get this post together. Two works of fiction in June- not bad!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fu*k by Mark Manson. I think that if you don’t read a lot of self help books, you might like this book. The author was kind of a turd of a person, but he did have some good tidbits about life.

Option B by Sheryl Sandberg. My favorite part of this book was the idea of post traumatic growth. It’s such a powerful concept.

You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. I have a bunch of money insecurities, so this was 100% on my to read list. Lots of good LET’S GET PUMPED ABOUT MONEY here.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman. Absolutely wonderful! I laughed, I cried, I wished I had a neighbor named Ove.

The Handmand’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I know, I know, I know. How haven’t I read this before?? A little too close to reality these days, but fascinating nonetheless.

This month was super LIGHT on the reading front. I ended up taking notes from Big Miracles, which slowed me way down, but I’m currently only one book behind schedule to get to 52 this year :) Here’s more on the whopping two books​ I managed to read this month!

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. My favorite thing about this book was the reminder that family isn’t limited to your blood relatives. My family is a mishmash of actual relatives, relatives by marriage, and adopted family members, and I wouldn’t trade any of ’em in. 

Big Miracles by Joanna Garzilli. I found this book randomly at the library (these are the best trips!) and I’m so glad I did. This is a great book for a time when you’re feeling stuck in any part of your life. Solid advice and spiritual guidance, sans anything religious.

Another month, another stack of books 💪

Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu. I LOVED this book. Written for working mothers but so applicable for any woman living with a man. A lot of great insight on why women do more at home, and how to work to balance the responsibilities. Really well written, I highly recommend it!

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty. This is apparently her first book. I did the audiobook and tortured Mack with their Australian accents and the name DAN over and over again. We’ve taken to yelling DAN with an accent now. Anyway. It was okay. Lots of chick lit dramz.

milk and honey by rupi kaur. I loved this book of poetry. I don’t ordinarily seek out poetry but I paged through this book at a bookshop a few weeks ago and was hooked. It’s real and so damn relatable. I’m still working through my emotional baggage from some traumatic stuff, and this was a really helpful part of that.

Martha Stewart: A Biography by Joann F. Price. Okay. This was a nerdy library book request. I wanted to know more about the woman, so here I was. I learned a lot and I’m not sure I liked all of it. I like Marth as a brand but I’m not sure I like Martha as a person. She seems to have stabbed a few people in the back to get what she wants and that’s not really how I roll. I’m all about that kind, non-judgmental, do no harm but take no shit life. 

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. This is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for ages. I happened upon it by chance at Costco and figured I had to buy it! It’s a lot of stuff I already knew since I’m pretty heavily invested in self help books but I always welcome the reminder that we can’t control our circumstances but we can control how we react to them. And, you can probably get good at something if you believe you can and you give it 110%. 

Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott. Both Shauna Niequist AND Brene Brown recommended this book on Instagram and I’m not one to turn down a recommendation from two great authors so I gave it a shot. It was a great quick read, and I loved the way it was so relatable. In this uncomfortable political climate, we could all use some mercy: for ourselves, and for others.

Notable quote: “One has to be done with the pretense of being just fine, unscarred, perfectly self-sufficient. No one is.”